OCT. io 
These were all the breeds at the Fordhook Farm, but at 
another farm Messrs. Burpee & Co. have several other 
varieties, including Brown Leghorns, Langshans and 
Mammoth Bronze and White Turkeys. To give some idea 
of the business the firm does in poultry, it sold no fewer 
than 1,780 sittings of eggs last year—equal to almost five 
every day of the year—at an average of $2 50 each, and 
900 birds. The sittings of eggs range in price from $2 50 
to $8 each for 13 eggs, according to breed ; and the prices 
of the fowls range from §7 to $20 per pair, according to 
quality. Tne concern also does an extensive business in 
breeding collie dogs for sale. At the time of my visit 
there were in the kennels 35 adult dogs and a large num¬ 
ber of puppies of the best possible breeding for show and 
working purposes combined. About 
200 puppies a year are sold at an 
[ average of $20 each. 
beautifully tinted eggs of good size, a dozen averaging 
27% ounces. The cocks weigh nine to ten pounds, and the 
hens seven to eight pounds each. I did not take all I was 
told for granted, but I personally handled these birds, and 
was astonished to find how solid, weighty, and close- 
feathered they were. I also compared them closely with 
the White Plymouth Rocks and Langshans, and found 
them very different from either. They differ noticeably in 
the following particulars: their comb3 are not so promi¬ 
nent, and are of finer texture and not of quite the same 
shape ; their beaks are longer and more curved; their legs 
of a brighter yellow than those of the White Plymouth 
Rock, and the color of the eyes is lighter, and they are 
harder, closer-feathered, and much more upstanding 
THE BIRDS AT BURPEE'S FARM. 
A MODEL BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT. 
Religious cleanliness; no sick birds; good house arrange¬ 
ment; suitable yards; rat-pooof Jloors; a model 
brooder house; the Sherwoods are coming; other 
breeds. 
E. BABDOE ELLIOTT. 
A few weeks ago I paid a visit to the Fordhook Farm 
poultry yards of Messrs. W. Atlee Burpee & Co. Though 
this is anything but the right time of the year to see 
poultry at their best, I did not see a single sick bird. This 
was undoubtedly due to the great cleanliness of every¬ 
thing. All the houses are kept constantly whitewashed 
and disinfected, and the droppings 
are religiously cleared away every 
morning. As will be seen from a 
glance at Fig. 255, the houses, instead 
of forming one long range, are all 
separate. Each is divided into two 
compartments by a passageway 
through the center; from this all 
the eggs can be collected and the 
droppings cleared away without 
eateiing the roosting places. Each 
compartment leads into an inclosed L J 
run of its own. The runs are planted J / 
with fruit bearing trees and are in 
closed by wire netting and boarded 
up from the bottom about two feet. ’ * ♦ 
This effectually prevents all fighting 
through the wires. The houses are - * ... , 
built of wood, and measure 24x10 
feet. The yards measure 90x25 feet, ZTZ'T'mt 
so there is ample room for a good 
pen of birds in each, while the grass 
can at the same time be kept in ^ 
fairly good condition. Of course this g^, 
varies greatly according to the breed, 
as some breeds, such as the Asiatics, 
are much harder on the grass than 
others. 
The last house shown in the illus¬ 
tration serves as the incubator and 
brooder-house, as well as the food 
store and kitchen, etc. It consists 
of one floor and basement. Down be¬ 
low are the incubators in full work¬ 
ing order, aud up above are the 
brooders with inclosed inside runs, 
which are used until the chickens 
are old enough to be put out and 
also in bad weather. At the time of my visit the only 
occupants were a little Pekin Bantam and 10 14 days old 
chicks. All the floors are of concrete and rat-proof, as are 
all the houses. They are made so by a very simple con¬ 
trivance: rat-proof netting is sunk three feet into the 
ground round the outside of all the houses and runs, and 
bent over flat for about one foot in the ground at the bot¬ 
tom. This latter precaution effectually prevents the rats 
from burrowing under the netting. The Pineland in¬ 
cubators alone are used. Outside the house is 
another Inclosed run which is chicken-proof, - 
where the youDg chicks are confined till they 
are strong enough to be turned into the large 
chicken nursery beyond, and again there Is an¬ 
other yard for still older chickens. The poultry 
are fed with scalded meal in the morning, and 
wheat and cracked corn in the evening. The man¬ 
ager told me that he preferred the corn cracked, 
as he did not find it so heating as when fed 
whole. 
In the first yard were a fine upstanding im¬ 
ported Indian Game cock and four hens of 
Whitfield’s noted strain. Yard No. 2 contained 
a cock and five hens of the same breed, some 
of the hens being beautifully laced. Yard No. 3 
contained the finest pen of Red Caps I have ever 
seen, with fine, large yet neat combs—a feature A' 
so very difficult to secure in this breed. Messrs. 
Burpee & Co. find these and the Brown Leghorns 
the best all-the-year-round layers, and above the 
average as winter layers when early hatched. As 
table fowls they are also good, their flesh being 
juicy and of excellent flavor. The cocks aver 
age 8% pounds in weight, and hens seven pounds. |pil 
Yard No. 4 contained several good Houdans, some 
among them being well marked birds with good Hgi 
In Yard No.5 were Messrs. Burpee & Co.’s special 
favorites, the Sherwoods, specimens of which are NV.-* 
shown at Fig. 256. The firm has always made it 
one of its chief endeavors to bring out pure yet lit- Bn| 
tie known varieties of poultry. Before introduc¬ 
ing any of them to the public, however, care is 
taken to thoroughly test their merits and to prove 
that they breed true to type and feather and are 
not mere “sports” or cross-bred mongrels which so many 
of the so-called new or renovated old breeds are. Conse¬ 
quently a great many of these ancient breeds and modern 
renovations have been discarded as worthless, but the 
Sherwoods have come to stay. They are pure white fowls, 
with small erect, single combs, and bright yellow legs, 
slightly feathered to the outside toe; comb, face, ear lobes 
and wattles are crimson red, and they have yellow beaks. 
Altogether, they are very ornamental and stylish fowls, 
with a gay, jaunty carriage. They are said to grow rap¬ 
idly and mature early, being fit for broilers when 12 to 14 
weeks, and the pullets begin to lay when four months old. 
As table fowls, I am told, they cannot be surpassed, and as 
layers they equal the Brown Leghorns and Red Caps. 
They are moderate sitters and careful mothers. They lay 
MICHIGAN’S LOSS IS BRAZIL’S 
GAIN. 
At Fig. 257 we show a photo-por¬ 
trait of Prof. Eugene Davenport, 
who will leave this country on Oc¬ 
tober 7 to organize and direct a new 
agricultural college in Sao Paulo, 
Brazil. 
Prof. Davenport Is a young man 
well on the sunny side of 40. One 
should be able to show gray hairs 
before the “story of his life” can be 
told with much dignity. When we 
sit down to make an exhaustive 
study of a man’s life and character 
we feel somehow that it is a sort of 
finishing touch—an account of one 
who has gone through the full fight 
and gained a position that will pro¬ 
vide honor enough if it be only held. 
Prof. Davenport is one who begins 
his life work well. The end, we trust, 
is far away yet. It will be honor 
enough for him if he can keep up 
the pace and grow In the direction 
he has planned. For these reasons 
we have no 
life history” to give. 
It is enough to say that he is a Michi¬ 
gan farmer’s son, born and reared on 
the farm, taught by hfs parents those 
habits of industry, observation and 
ti c ught that will make agriculture a 
pro it ble and pleasant occupation 
in any part of the world. The father chopped a farm 
out of the forest and made his work “pay” from the 
first blow of his axe. It paid .a a money sense, because 
the man who swung the axe was a keen, observant, busi¬ 
ness-like man who thought and planned before he acted. 
It paid in a better than money sense, because the man 
had a broad, strong mind that kept pace with the develop¬ 
ment of the farm, and thus recognized and appreciated 
the changed conditions of farming and the necessity for 
a changed farmer. Young Davenport went from 
such farm surroundings as a student to the 
Michigan Agricultural College, and graduated 
with honors. He then went back to farm work, 
frequently teaching school during the winters. 
Three years ago he returned to the college for 
the purpose of studying several problems of 
science that deeply interested him. As he in¬ 
formed the writer of this at the time, his work on 
the farm after graduating had only made him 
more than ever anxious to know why certain 
forces of nature operated as they did and how 
certain methods of culture worked in harmony 
with these forces. After a year of this special 
I study, he was elected Professor of Agriculture 
at the college. He leaves now with this record 
from one who has been associated with the insti¬ 
tution for 20 years: 
“ In two years of trial he can truly be said to 
have given more satisfaction than any one ever 
in the place here. The college will miss him, but 
he will go, and we must make the best of it.” 
The offer from Brazil is a tempting one. Prof. 
Davenport will receive a salary of $6,000 per year 
with traveling expenses, house rent and service. 
^PIU He will try it. We have known him a good 
many years, and we will make the assertion 
that the moment he feels that he is not earning 
his salary he will leave the position. Prof Daven¬ 
port is a sound farmer, a skillful teacher, and a 
level-headed business man. The Brazilian Gov¬ 
ernment can well afford to pay a bounty on the 
- Importation of such products 1 
The province or State of Sao Paulo, is in 
the southeastern part of Brazil. It has an area 
of 112,307 square miles, and a population of 
1,306,272 It is, therefore, about as large as New York* 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, with about the population 
of the last named State. The country is chiefly a high 
plateau with two mountain ranges. The climate of the 
southern part of the State is called “ the finest in the 
world.” At the city of Sao Paulo, with an altitude of 
2,395 feet, the mean annual temperature is 62 degrees, 
the highest being 91 degrees, and lowest, 30. The annual 
rainfall is 59 inches. 
The state of Rio Grande do Sul, some 300 miles below 
Sao Paulo, greatly resembles North Carolina in climate 
and topography. They are about equal distances from the 
equator, both are washed by warm ocean currents and 
there is a striking similarity in temperature, humidity 
and rainfall. This is the wheat-growing section of Brazil. 
YARDS AND HOUSES AT BURPEE’S POULTRY FARM. Fig. 255 
birds, with fuller breasts. The color of their flesh is also 
whiter. 
In yard No. 6 were an excellent trio of Silver Wyan- 
dottes, the hens being particularly good in markings. 
Yard No. 7 contained fine large, well-penciled Partridge 
Cochins. In yard No. 8 were some good White Plymouth 
Rocks, a few a little yellow in color. In yard No. 9 were 
Black Minorcas, a good lot, some a little deficient in size, 
but all excellent in comb and face. Yard No. 10 contained 
A GROUP OF SHERWOODS. Fig. 256 
some smart Pekin Bantams. The cock was particularly 
good, but the hens were hardly “ Cochlny ” enough in type 
and too light in color. 
In yard No. 11 was a grand collection of Light Brahmas 
of good size, and with beautifully penciled hackles. 
Yard No. 12 contained some fine Pekin ducks, and Yard 
No. 13 a trio of Black Red Games, hardly long enough in 
shanks for the present fashion. Yard No. 14 held another 
good pen of Red Caps. Yard No. 15 contained a pretty 
pen of White-Crested Black Polish, which were too much 
out of feather to do this lovely breed justice. 
In yard No. 16 was another pen of Indian Games, little, 
if any, inferior to the others. Yard No. 17 contained a 
good collection of Barred Plymouth Rocks. In yard No. 
18, the last, came another beautiful pen of Sherwoods. 
